


Mentor

by Jena Bartley (jenab)



Category: Alias (TV)
Genre: Gen, Mentor/Protégé
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-01-13
Updated: 2014-01-13
Packaged: 2018-01-07 22:44:14
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 917
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1125275
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/jenab/pseuds/Jena%20Bartley
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Vaughn watches from the outside</p>
            </blockquote>





	Mentor

**Author's Note:**

> Thank you to for the beta.

  
Vaughn stretched, hands reaching towards the ceiling as he worked the stiffness out of his back and shoulders from too many hours spent in front of the computer. Around him the office had grown quiet as the day shift left and the night shift was just starting to filter in.

The quiet murmur of voices drew his attention to a desk across the room. Vaughn blinked, a little surprised to see Jack Bristow and Will Tippin sitting close together in front of a computer screen. The glow from the desk lamp cast shadows over the two men as they talked, engrossed in whatever was on the screen before them.

As he watched, Will absently pushed his glasses up his nose asking Jack a question. Jack responded, his voice low, tapping one finger on the screen to direct Will's attention to whatever point Jack was making.

Vaughn thought he shouldn't be surprised anymore at seeing the two men sitting close together like this. It was just one more thing that was becoming commonplace at headquarters. Marshall cooing over his new baby and showing anyone willing pictures of said baby. Eric and Sydney dating, shooting each other heated looks and touching one another when they thought no one was looking. And Jack and Will almost always together, working.

Vaughn still couldn't understand how Will Tippin, a former reporter with no formal CIA training, had somehow ended up a senior analyst, much less Jack Bristow's protege. What made Jack want to teach Will, of all people, how to become a spy? Why had he chosen to impart his thirty-plus years of knowledge and skill as a CIA agent to Will?

How did Will seem to gain Jack's approval when most times it was a struggle for Vaughn to get Jack to look at him with some degree of respect?

For all his tendencies to be a loose cannon, breaking laws and protocol whenever it suited him (usually in regards to Sydney), Jack was considered a legend in the CIA. Vaughn had taken a peek at Jack's service record when he first became Sydney's handler, at least the parts he had clearance for. What he had read had really opened his eyes about Jack. The man was a consummate agent, still was in fact. He might not have the physical prowess of younger agents but his mind more than made up for that. Operating as a successful double agent for ten years inside SD-6 was only one of many feats Jack had pulled off over the years. And this was despite the fact that his former wife had been a KGB spy whose mission had been to seduce and marry Jack in order to gain access to high level secrets.

What most bothered Vaughn was the evidence he saw that Jack was teaching Will how to be more than a simple field agent. That Jack was teaching Will all about game theory, strategy, and tactics. Things a grunt field agent had little need for in the field, but a strategist or agent in charge did. And Vaughn desperately wanted to become more than just a field agent or handler.

And what made all this worse as he watched Jack mentor Will was how Will soaked everything up. How he seemed to excel at whatever task Jack set him, no matter how hard or complex that task was. Oh sure, Will had the occasional screw-up or blunder, some very spectacular, but he was becoming quite an outstanding agent. Vaughn hadn't thought Will had the capacity or ability to become an agent, let alone a good one, but the other man had surprised him.

In many other ways as well. When Sydney was presumed dead, Vaughn literally fell apart, turning to alcohol for solace before finally leaving the CIA. Will had not only had to deal with Sydney's death but with the stunning realization that his lover, the woman he thought of as Francie, was a double agent, using Will to gain CIA secrets. He saw his entire life burn to ash and he didn't fall apart as Vaughn had. Instead, he had become stronger, revealing a hidden core of strength that surprised many people, including Vaughn. But not Jack..

According to Eric, Jack wasn't surprised by Will's unexpected resilience. While Vaughn had fallen apart over Sydney, Jack had been out looking for his daughter and keeping a very close eye on Will. As soon as Will was healed enough, Jack had recruited him to help find Sydney. Ever since then, the pair of them were almost inseparable.

Coming back to the Agency after Sydney's reappearance, Vaughn found whatever ground he had made in getting closer to Jack had vanished. He was back to being just another low level agent who had once been intimate with Jack's daughter.

Sitting at his desk watching Jack and Will, Vaughn wondered how much harder it would be for him to move up in the ranks without the support of someone like Jack. If Sydney hadn't disappeared, would he be sitting in Will's place, or would he still be struggling to have Jack consider him with something more than cool tolerance in his eyes?

Or had Jack already assessed him from the beginning and found him wanting, knowing Vaughn would fall apart the first time his world went to hell? That whatever core of strength Will possessed, Vaughn lacked.

Was that why he was sitting where he was now, on the outside, watching as Jack trained Will?


End file.
